Cecil R. Blair - Legislative Highlights

Legislative Highlights

Blair was affiliated with the anti-Long faction of his state's party, principally because he loathed corruption and favoritism in government.

As a House member, Blair supported farmers who needed open range lands. During the administration of Governor Robert F. Kennon, Blair authored the bill to fence the highways to keep roaming cattle off the roads. He worked to obtain the relocation to Alexandria of St. Mary's Training School for the handicapped. In the Senate, Blair pushed for the creation of Buhlow Lake adjacent to the Red River in Pineville, where popular boat races are held. In the House multi-district, Blair served with two colleagues from Rapides Parish, Lloyd George Teekell and H.N. Goff. In effect, Blair replaced W. George Bowdon, Jr., who left the legislature after a single term to run successfully for mayor of Alexandria in 1953.

Blair worked for the establishment of the original two-year LSUA, which is located near his Lecompte farm in south Rapides Parish. Years later, the school was given four-year status, a breakthrough which came only a few weeks before Blair's death.

Blair was known for his constituent services and his efforts to improve Louisiana Highway 1 between Shreveport and Baton Rouge. He also supported highway beautification and personally planted flowers along U.S. Highway 71 near his farm. He opposed having the office of state superintendent of education be made appointive, having explaiend that would prefer the judgment of three million voters, rather than a small group deciding who should hold the top post in education.

Blair first ran for the state Senate in 1956 but was defeated in the Earl Long landslide by the Longite choice, Crawford Hugh "Sammy" Downs, of Alexandria. In 1960, Blair unseated Downs in the Democratic primary. In 1964, Blair was beaten by George Ray Lee, who died in office midway through his term. In the 1966 special election to replace Lee, Blair waged a victorious comeback. He won again in 1968 and 1972. From 1969 to 1972, he and Sylvan Friedman of Natchitoches Parish represented a two-member district that included Grant Parish.

In his last Senate term, Blair was also elected on a nonpartisan ballot as a delegate to the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention, which drafted the state's current framework of government, as approved by voters in the spring of 1974.